Disclaimer: I don't own HP or anything thereof, but I really wish I did! hehe

Chapter 102

Albus had been on his way to dinner when Poppy's patronus had caught him.

It had been a long day, though he suspected it had been an even longer day for Harry.

First, The Daily Prophet announced the truth to everyone. Then his staff had demanded the truth before they would head off to teach their own classes (except for Trelawney who kept saying she knew the truth all along).

As far as he knew, Harry had refrained from lashing out, but he figured that it was only a matter of time.

Albus entered the private room to see Severus demanding to see his son.

"Severus, calm down. Harry is fine."

"Albus?"

The Headmaster nodded. "Sit back and let Poppy scan you."

"Why am I here?" he asked hoarsely.

"What do you remember?"

Severus shook his head. "I ... I'm unsure."

"Take a deep breath, Severus. Calm yourself."

"Why? What happened? Where is Harry?"

Albus sighed. Clearly stubbornness ran in the family.

"You were discovered a traitor by Voldemort."

Severus' hand shot to his left arm, which let him discover the warding wire.

"Leave that be, Severus. It's blocking Voldemort's access to your magic."

"I don't understand. If the Dark Lord discovered my betrayal, how am I alive?" he asked slowly.

"Harry rescued you," stated the Headmaster simply.

"Excuse me?"

"He knows the truth, Severus."

Severus froze.

"He learned the truth from Voldemort."

"No."

Albus nodded.

"Where is he? Is he alright?" He made to leave the bed.

Poppy shot a binding spell at him. "You are not to leave that bed, Severus Snape."

"Calm down Severus. Harry is fine. He's hardly left your bedside. Today was the first day he resumed classes. I imagine he'll be up here at any moment."

"He ... doesn't hate me?"

"Oh, he's quite angry at you for keeping this from him, but his anger has been replaced by worry for the past two weeks."

Two weeks? He had been unconscious for two weeks?

Severus then glared at Poppy. "Release me."

"I will do no such thing. You will calm yourself or I will spell you back to sleep."

"No Ron. I need some peace and quiet. It was a miracle I kept from hexing anyone today."

"Are you going to sleep here?"

"Yeah. Even my own house mates are treating me like I'm contagious."

"Once they see you're not any different, they'll calm down."

"I dunno. According to Seamus, being Snape's son means I'm Voldemort reincarnated."

"Honestly. People will believe anything they read," said Hermione. "You'd think they'd know The Prophet was trash by now."

The adults in the private room exchanged looks as the trio conversed amongst themselves.

"We have prefect rounds, Harry. If you want, we can come by afterwards."

"No. I'm just going to study then turn in early. See you two in the morning."

Harry watched his best friends leave, then he entered the room where Snape was being kept. He froze when he saw the man awake and looking at him.

So many things entered into Severus' mind. It was practically impossible to grab onto one in particular.

"How long have you been awake?" asked a clearly shocked Harry. 'And why didn't anyone come to get me?' he wondered.

"About 15 minutes," said the Headmaster when Severus didn't appear to be able to answer him.

Harry stayed at the door way. "How are you feeling, sir?"

"I'm fine, Potter."

Harry inadvertently winced.

"Harry," Snape quickly corrected.

"Is he fine?"

"No," said Madam Pomphrey. However, she took advantage of Severus no longer struggling to scan him again with a different diagnostic spell.

Harry and Snape just stared at each other.

"Take these Severus," she said summoning vials of potions from her cupboard.

The potion master briefly looked away from Harry to see what he was taking. Satisfied, he downed them and relaxed back into the bed.

Harry sat down in a chair near the door.

Before anyone could say anything though, Remus came bursting into the room.

"Harry, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Remus," he said shortly.

Remus then followed Harry's gaze and saw that Severus was awake.

"Oh, Severus! Thank Merlin!"

Dumbledore conjured a chair for Remus so that he could sit down along with everyone else.

"Now that we're all here, I need you, Severus, to think back to the last thing you remember. That way we'll know where to start filling you in at."

"I ... I remember your ultimatum," said Severus hesitantly.

Albus sighed. "On the first, around three in the morning, you were summoned. Voldemort had learned of your true loyalty, which made him angry enough that he broke through Harry's shields."

"I learned through Voldemort that you were my father. Do you know what that did to me?" demanded Harry, suddenly unable to keep quiet.

Severus winced.

Albus kept speaking before Harry could release his pent up emotions on Severus. "Harry evidently tried to stop you because he saw that your cover had been blown. When he couldn't, he followed you to Voldemort's Headquarters. You were both gone for over a day, but he managed to bring you back to Hogwarts."

"How ...?" Severus trailed off, clearly unsure of which question to pursue first.

"Harry put the memory in my pensieve for me. With his permission, in a couple of days, I'd like to show it to you. It will answer a number of your questions."

Harry got an alarmed expression on his face. "Maybe it's good that he doesn't remember. I heard what all he was put through."

"I need to know. I need to remember," stated Severus, "what was done to me."

Harry sighed, but nodded. "Okay, but only after you are a little bit better."

Before Severus could protest, the Headmaster nodded. "He's right. You've only just awoken. You need to recover more of your strength before you view the memory."

"But -"

"You were held for over a day," said Harry. "It's a long memory. They made me sleep for almost a solid four days once we came back. You should sleep longer."

Realizing he was outnumbered, Severus simply nodded (which was a token of how tired he really felt).

"However, I demand to be released to my quarters," he stated.

"Absolutely not," huffed Madam Pomphrey. "You're lucky to be alive. You may still relapse. I need you here where I can keep an eye on you."

"I will be fine in a few days, so I demand to be released."

"No."

To Harry's surprise, the medi-witch spelled Snape to sleep before he could react.

"It won't hold him long," stated Madam Pomphrey. "I need you to leave Mr. Potter. You may visit again tomorrow, but tonight, he needs his rest - not the constant Q&A that is bound to happen between the two of you."

Harry had been amused when Madam Pomphrey spelled Snape to sleep. He had thought he was bad while he had been a patient, but Snape made him look like an angel.

"Potter, go on back to your dorm," Madam Pomphrey said again.

He paused as he stood up. He didn't feel like putting up with his house mates yet. He was still upset with Remus so that ruled out saying with him and besides, Remus looked to be staying here with Snape for the time being. He hadn't counted on Snape waking up so soon, and he was definitely still angry at him.

"Go on, Potter." The medi-witches tone left no room for argument.

Harry picked up his book bag and went out in the main part of the infirmary. He frowned. He had no where to go.

Running his hand through his hair, he headed to the Founder's Library. At least he'd be able to get his homework done there.

Severus woke up a couple of hours later. He took in his surroundings. A glance out of the window told him that it was dark out.

There were two chairs present but they were currently unoccupied.

A sharp pain went through his leg, causing him to wince. He then realized his left arm was numb.

Just as he raised it to try to inspect it, Poppy came around the corner.

"Leave that be, Severus," she stated again. "Albus and Potter put that on the Dark Mark to block You-Know-Who's access to you and your magic."

"Where's Harry?" was the first thing he thought to ask.

"His dorm I imagine. I sent him away when I spelled you asleep earlier."

"You did what?" he demanded.

"I didn't need him hovering when you woke up. You need to rest right now, not be bothered by questions."

Severus sneered. "You are to never send him away from me. If he wants to stay, you are to let him."

Poppy shivered at Severus' tone but nodded that she understood.

"Where's Albus?"

"Right here, Severus. How are you feeling?" The Headmaster rounded the corner and sat in a chair by his bed.

"Fine," he lied.

"You are not fine. I need to know what's wrong with you so I can give you the appropriate medicines."

"My left leg has sharp stabs of pain going through it and my left arm is numb."

"Hmm," said Albus. "It's possible we wrapped the coil too tightly, but that's more than likely due to the abuse Tom has been trying to give you through it."

"What happened to me, Albus?" At this point, he would settle for any type of answer - so long as it was an answer.

The Headmaster sighed. "Harry told me some of the tortures you endured, the scans told me the same. The memory showed me the rest. You were dying Severus. After Harry rescued you, there were several times you stopped breathing. Just as we got you stable again, you would be tortured through your Dark Mark. Harry stopped that as well."

"How is that possible?"

"I don't think he'll mind if I show you that memory now. We can watch it above the penseive." Albus quickly retrieved it from Madam Pomphrey's office.

As they viewed it, they noticed that the outer edge of the memory was dimmed.

The Headmaster frowned. That meant that Harry was in a lot of pain. He had lied and said it wasn't that bad.

"Where did he learn parseltongue spells?" demanded Severus, more than a little alarmed.

Albus opened his mouth to reply but a headache hit him. "Evidently there is a lot of information the castle holds."

"That's not an answer."

"It's the only one you're getting. Severus, everyone knows the truth. Harry returned to classes today and it was conveniently leaked to the Daily Prophet today as well."

"Why was he missing classes?"

"When I woke up on the 2nd, both of your clocks said Mortal Peril. I searched the castle, hoping they were broken. When we could not locate either of you, we spread it around that Harry had Dragon Pox, and you got called away for various reasons."

"So he missed two weeks of classes?"

"He had too, Severus. He had been exposed to so much Dark Magic and had exhausted his own magical core so badly that we had to keep him drugged for over a week to keep him from harming himself. Not that it kept him from performing magic when you starting being tortured ... as you saw."

Severus frowned. "How is he?"

"Physically, fine. Emotionally is a different story. He's quiet. He's upset at both Remus and myself, only talking to us as needed. He's very angry at you, and sad as well. He believes you don't want him."

"What? Why would he believe that?"

"Because Remus and I both told him that we were waiting on you to tell him the truth."

"And because I couldn't, he assumes I don't want him," finished Severus. "Could this be even more of a mess?"

"I'm sure it could. Rest Severus. I'm sure Harry will be down to see you tomorrow. If you are feeling up to it, we can view the memory of what happened then."

Severus scowled but nodded.

Harry was currently in the Room of Requirement. The Founder's Library wouldn't grant him entrance - no doubt because he was still angry at most everyone.

As a distraction to his mess of a life, he threw himself into his homework. Unfortunately, he was done with all of it in two hours.

Harry sighed. He pulled out a book from his book bag that he had borrowed from the library during lunch. It was a book on Stealth Charms. He needed to keep his mind off of his current problems - which Merlin knew he had a lot of them.

While he was reading, he managed to fall asleep. Around 4:30 that morning, he dropped his wand, that he had fell asleep holding, to the ground.

The noise of it hitting the ground startled him so badly that he nearly fell out of his chair.

Try as he might, he could not go back to sleep after that - which led to him thinking. With a frown, he gathered his stuff up.

There was one question he needed to know the answer to now. It couldn't possibly wait any longer.

Severus winced as he adjusted himself in the bed. His left leg was hurting him pretty badly.

The glow from the window indicated that it was just now approaching dawn. He was still exhausted.

Just as he had been about to fall asleep again, he realized he was no longer alone.

Raising his head, he spied his son sitting in a chair by the door.

Clearly surprised, he asked, "Harry?"

Harry nodded. "I'm sorry to wake you, sir. How are you feeling?"

"Sore, but alive. What are you doing down here?"

"Couldn't sleep much. Besides, I have a question for you that can't wait any more."

Severus frowned but nodded for him to continue.

"Did you force yourself upon my mother?"

The question was asked very softly, but Severus could feel the anger emanating from the young man as he asked it.

"Absolutely not. What we done was completely consensual."

Harry nodded. Severus had noticed some of the tension leave him as soon as he had answered. "I had to know. Get some more sleep, sir. I need to go before Madam Pomphrey catches me in here."

Before he could utter a word, Harry was gone.

He sighed in frustration. If that had been the type of thoughts that the boy had been having, then this was not going to be easy.

It was clear to see that whatever trust he had managed to build with his son over the past couple of years was now shattered.

And that thought alone pained him much deeper than any physical pain ever could.

A/N: Yeah, this is shorter than I would have liked it and posted later than I would have liked to have posted it, but RL has been hectic. I've been torn between WV (where my grandpa was in the hospital for almost a month) and VA (where I now live) and unpacking and everything that goes along with that. Gotta love beauracy down here. I went to go get a Drivers License for VA and I can't because I don't have a checking account proving I have a local address. And I can't get a checking out because I don't have a drivers license showing my local addy. Sometimes I wonder ... I really do.

Anyway, the next chapter is definitely longer and it even includes a chat between Malfoy and Harry, which is always fun to write. hehe I want to have it up by next Monday, but I can't promise anything at this point. I have to go back to WV twice and take family members to various doctor's, plus my papaw's birthday is in a couple of weeks.

Also, where fanfiction removed my own line breaks, I've had some new readers say that the story is hard to follow, so over the next day or so, I'll be going back and adding them in. I warn you now because I'm not sure if that will cause those that have subscribed to the story to get update notices or not. If it's before this chapter, then I'm not updating it ... yet. Eventually I'll go back and fix a few words here and there, but what I'm about to do is to just fix the line breaks.

As always, reviews are good! I thank everyone who has followed the story thus far and leave little notes. They really do encourage me. =) I also thank those that are the silent readers. *leaves out munchies and gets to work on fixing the previous chapters line breaks*